Quite some time ago when I first got familiar with metal, which was round 7 years ago, my first and foremost link with metal was with the one band I stayed with over the years.. The one band that made me familiar with imagery, with poetry.... The one band I always come back to whenever my mood set changes and I need to, reset and get back to my roots... The music and lyrics I grew with as person and also as a poet... I'm talking about Nightwish.
When first I fell for Nightwish, as I described before, was with a gothic metal compilation CD. Out of all the songs and bands on there I kept going back to "Ever Dream". The song just had everything I liked... An opera voice, the deep lyrics with a poet's touch, the melodic goth metal style...
Out of the old Nightwish line up I loved all of it. The singer, Tarja Turunen, whose voice just brings goosebumps to the very core of me. The male singer, Marco Hietala, whose sound and bass really rock Nightwish. The guitarist Emppu Vuorinen with his incredible riffs ans solo's and the drummer, Jukka Nevalainen who is just so totally awesome. But the one person aside of the female voice in this band I have the biggest affinity with, is Tuomas Holopainen.
His view of the world, the imagery he uses in his lyrics still gets to me, even after those years...
"All I ever craved were the two dreams I shared with you. One I now have, will the other one ever dream remain. For yours I truly wish to be."
In November 2004 I got to meet them and get their autographs at the signing session at the Fame in Amsterdam. At that point I was just rolling into the Nightwish fan I am now.I still remember that signing session. Emppu and Jukka were being very funny and laughing, Tarja was being her pretty self and Tuomas was drawn back... Closed off to the world, sunken into his own thoughts and probably thinking of something he wanted to write. I got Tarja and Tuomas to pose with me for this picture ;)
As the years passed issues within the band let them to break ties with Tarja and look for a new
singer in Annette Olzon. Her input in the band is different as it led them to stray from the operatic sound and go for a bit more mainstream like style. In my opinion, even though the lyrics and music are still all Nightwish is, was, and will be to me, the voice of Annette is too different. Nevertheless, I still like the album Dark Passion Play and I'm looking forward to more of their work...For 2012 the time is set for a new project that Nightwish is involved in. There will be a cd and a movie.... Imaginarium... Currently the band is recording the album and arranging things for the movie.
Imaginarium is a music fantasy - film based on the forthcoming Nightwish album of the same title and its 13 songs.The protagonist of the film is a songwriter with an otherworldly imagination. He is an old man who still thinks he`s a young boy. While asleep he travels into his distant past where his dreams of old come back to him mixed to the young boy`s world of fantasy and music.
In his dreams the old man fights to find the memories most important to him.
There will be an Imaginarium world tour which kicks off in Los Angeles in January 2012. More news can be found here.
Update:
22. August 2011
Imaginarium will be released already at the end of this year!
More info about the schedule, track list and first single release coming up in a few weeks. Stay tuned!
